Abigail turned FIVE years old on August 16th! It doesn’t seem right for her to be getting that big. She was so excited for her birthday to finally arrive! It felt like she’d been counting down for weeks and weeks. Here is the recap of how we celebrated:
I’m not one of those moms who cooks breakfast very often, but for birthdays I try to do something a little more exciting than plain cereal ;) So…we warmed up leftover pancakes with sprinkles on top. It doesn’t take much to make it special and fun!
Abigail and I dropped the big girls off at school and then scootered/jogged down to the greenway…
She collected a few treasures before we headed home :) She currently enjoys wearing dresses just for fun, and I love it!
We went with the Johnsons to deliver newspapers after school and then played at their house for a few minutes. Abigail also enjoyed facetiming with Paw…”the birthday boy”!!
That night, after Brooklyn’s group soccer practice, Abigail was so excited to open up a couple of birthday gifts…
She squealed so loud when she realized one of them was the American Girl doll she’d been hoping for (Mary Ellen). She was super excited and couldn’t wait to get her out of the box. It was a priceless reaction!
Mary Ellen is one of the historical dolls (from the 1950s) and has really pretty hair!
Abigail was so excited to finally have an AG doll like Brooklyn and Savannah. (And, since I’m writing this several months later, I can say now that she plays with Mary Ellen more than almost any other toy she has. I’m so glad!).
Abigail’s other birthday buddy besides Paw is Mr. Mike, and he gave her a Crumbl Cookie gift card for her birthday. I took her by there on August 18th while we were out running errands, and she picked out a cookie. It was delicious!
This year, we decided to let Abigail have her first “friend party” for her birthday. She chose a Frozen theme since that’s one of her favorite movies. I thought this invitation was cute for a Frozen summer birthday party! At one point, I debated about renting a big inflatable water slide or having the party at our neighborhood pool, but I finally just decided to keep it simple. No need to set her expectations too high at such a young age! ;)
Abigail helped me get things ready for the party by helping fill the piñata…
…and decorating the goody bags with snowflake stickers.
Abigail couldn’t wait for August 20th…the day of the party. We invited family and her friends from bible class. We were originally supposed to have everyone there, but then a couple of families ended up not being able to make it last minute. We had a great time though! I thought it was so sweet that she wanted to wear a Frozen dress and asked me to braid her hair before the party. Savannah helped make some welcome signs to hang around the house before everyone arrived :)
Paw and Rae Rae were our first guests to arrive, and the girls played “Don’t Break the Ice” with Paw before everyone else came. The perfect game for a Frozen party ;)
I tried to keep things as low stress as possible when I was planning for the party. I typically prefer outdoor parties because it gives the kids more room to run and play, but this time we were mostly inside due to the weather (it rained about an hour before the party and was pretty hot/humid all afternoon). Thankfully, we were able to do the piñata outside at least. After everyone arrived, the first thing we did was Pin the Nose on Olaf.
The kids all enjoyed that, and it was one of Abigail’s favorite parts of the party. Barrett magically pinned his carrot in exactly the right spot on the first try before admitting he could see out the bottom of his blindfold…haha. We let him have a second chance ;)
Carter ended up getting his carrot closest to the right spot!
The kids played for a little while upstairs before we went out to hit the piñata. It worked great to hang it from the swing beam. Abigail went first and insisted that the birthday boy (Paw) hit it second.
Thankfully he didn’t whack it too hard ;)
After that, we went in age order from youngest to oldest. Everyone got several turns hitting it before all the candy/toys finally spilled out!
I was proud of the kids for being very kind when gathering up the candy and making sure that everyone got a fairly equal amount.
After that, it was time for cake! Abigail also wanted Paw’s name on her birthday cake, so we let Paw help blow out candles and sang to him too ;) Might be his only time to have a Frozen cake for his birthday!
I thought this was such a sweet picture!
It took Abigail four or five blows, but she finally blew out all her candles :)
We also served fruit (including FROZEN grapes…haha), chips, and pretzels, and homemade vanilla ice cream. It was a very simple and easy menu!
The kids played outside for a few more minutes before it was time for Abigail to open her gifts…
Abigail was very excited about a doll with blue/purple hair that Hannah picked out for her…haha. She decided to name it Addie. She also got some fun arts/crafts stuff, a sticker book, and a teddy bear.
It was a great afternoon! After everyone left, we ate pizza with Paw and Rae Rae and then she and Paw opened a few more gifts…
Brooklyn made her a “computer” out of paper and wrote her a really sweet note :)
Abigail asked for a “pink soccer backpack”…little did she know, I’d already put one on her birthday list. A mother’s intuition, I guess. She was thrilled!
Savannah gave her a bag of a bunch of small odds and ends things from her room ;) Abigail also got a couple of AG things for Mary Ellen that she was really excited about!
Paw also opened his gifts!
The next day, August 21st, we celebrated Abigail’s birthday at Cici’s with fruit tart for dessert. Yum!
This time Abigail blew out her candle in only two tries…haha :)
She got a couple more things for Mary Ellen and more sticker books. I think she enjoyed her celebration lasting for almost a week straight!
